Because I am strong enough not to (blank)
by FireFerrets
Summary: What if, during the last few moments with Haru Azuma had taken a different route entirely? (Alternate ending; somewhat heavily based off of the canon ending)


Azuma swung her sword, just as Haru took a jump back, the sword cutting through the air and catching some of the young girl's bangs. As Haru backed away from her new threat, she called out,

"W-why?"

"It is the only way," came Azuma's response as well as another swing of the sword. Haru's heart beat loudly in her chest. She felt her eyes begin to dampen and she shook her head.

She jumped back again, dodging yet another swing.

"M-miss Tokaku! Haru doesn't understand why..."

"Because I can kill others. My spell has been removed. I need to know what for."

Azuma swung again, but as Haru took a step back to avoid the attack she tripped and fell to the floor. Azuma held out her sword over the young girl's body, posed to strike.

"Is it because you feel Haru betrayed you?" Haru asked, her sadness becoming evident in her voice, "Are you upset because Haru used her ability to manipulate you?"

"No," Azuma replied, "But only because it is the only way. There is no other way to prove—"

_Bang, bang, crack._ Bullets whirred throughout the graveyard and one struck Azuma across the cheek, leaving a small cut. Azuma's head spun around looking for the bullet's source, just as a hand grabbed Haru and pulled her away.

Haru looked up at her savior, only to see none other than Azuma's face.

"Miss Tokaku?" Haru asked, confused, "There are two of you?"

"No, that one is Nio. Two rival clans: the Azumas of the East, the Kuzunoha of the West, the Azumas are specialized in combat and assassination techniques, where as the Kuzunnoha is a lineage of Shamaninsm and hypnotic techniques."

"Shamanism?"

"Yes, they take mental control of their victims through illusions and the idea of suggestion in technicality."

"Ah, so that Miss Tokaku was Nio?" Haru said, beginning to grasp the concept as the two ran down the graveyard.

"That would be how it seemed to me. The light, scented candles and smoke are a part of her methods; this entire room would be like a perfect stage for her."

"But, why would Nio want me dead; she is the guide for class black?"

"She is still an assassin! The second she said class black was over, she still planned to strike and claim her reward, and in my form!"

Haru paused and felt the grave. These were still part of the many lives that had died for the clan, for people like her and people with her ability.

"Miss Tokaku, are you really okay with this; with the possibility that I may have manipulated you and controlled your heart? What I have done to you, this can never be undone!"

"But I have gained something irreplaceab—" Tokaku was cut off by a quick slash of a sword. Haru swiftly ducked behind a tombstone as Azuma's sword barely hit her replica. She swiftly reached for a knife and through it at the other Tokaku, slicing through her head and rippling, marking Haru's guardian as an illusion.

Azuma swung her sword at the Nio posed as herself just as her enemy fired her gun, slicing Azuma's clean in two. Nio continued firing and missing until she was out of bullets, and then she took out a knife. Azuma pulled out a knife and the two began to circle each other, stabbing and dodging the attacks from the blades.

"Reveal who you truly are!" One Azuma demanded, " I would never kill Haru! I vowed to protect her!"

"Do not underestimate me. I am killing Haru for our own good. This is the only way of proving it."

"That's it? The primer is why you want to kill Haru, who you protected all this time?" The other Azuma smirked as she kicked the knife out of the identical girl's hand.

"All of my actions, I must know that they are my own. I need to know that it was my own decision to protect Haru!" She cried, and with a final sweep punched Azuma's jaw in, sending her flying. The girl smiled with the crooked toothed smile that belonged to Nio, marking her as fake for Azuma and Haru to see.

"Ah you completely ruined the scenario," Nio said, her voice sounding like her own once more. "However, I'm still not letting _you _kill Haru!" She said, raising a knife to the brunette's throat. Azuma threw a knife she had been keeping in her sock, stabbing Nio in the back of the knee and causing her to fall over.

Azuma raced forward, and grabbed Nio's knife out of her hand, standing over her, and she flipped the blade around so she was holding it and smashed the hilt into the girl's head. She was immediately knocked unconscious.

Haru flipped around and grabbed the knife that Nio had kicked out of Tokaku's hand and held it up to herself in defense. She understood what Tokaku's thought process was, and she could feel herself the pain that Tokaku felt. She understood the way Tokaku had felt when she had decided to put herself through so many trials for her own sake. But Azuma had not seen the faces of the people who had died so that Haru may live the way that she had. She was not going to let their sacrifice go in vain. She understood why Azuma had to do this for herself, and she loved Azuma for caring for her. But she was not going to die here.

Azuma lunged forward and prepared to stab Haru. She quickly kicked the blade out of Haru's hand and brought the hand holding the knife forward in towards Haru.

Azuma had once been a mindless drone simply obeying orders she had been given. She had no intention or purpose in life, until she met Haru. From then on she felt what people had described to her so many times before. She felt a reason to be alive. She continued doing her work with a purpose. To think that she could have been manipulated into that would mean she had gone nowhere.

Azuma flipped the knife around and made a stabbing motion towards the girl's chest. Haru attempted to reach backwards for the knife, but it was nowhere near her reach. Azuma slammed the knife in towards Haru's chest, but when the blade was inches away from piercing flesh, her hand froze, and her mind flashed towards the shrine she had visited so many years ago.

"_No…" _She thought, as like so many times before she had frozen just as she was about to go in for the kill. Her eyes widened in shock "_Why..."_ Her mind immediately flashed to an image of a woman protecting, arms wrapped around her shielding her from going in for the kill. When she turned around to look at the woman, she was surprised to see instead of her mother, herself.

"_Azuma_," The voice came from the vision of herself, wrapped around her and protecting her. "_Our strength to move on from our mothers blessing is because of the love we feel. We are giving up our humanity and our family's sacrifices."_

"No," Azuma responded, "We are taking a step forward. I am proving that I am finally able to be free and make my own decisions. That I can kill of my own accord, that I am my own human."

"_Do we really seek to be able to freely kill? Do we seek to lose our humanity in the name of self-control? Inner strength comes not from being able to obey our wishes. But from being strong enough to stop ourselves when our wishes become dangerous."_

Azuma was silent. She thought carefully before speaking.

"I must have an answer to the question. I cannot lead my life knowing I have been manipulated into performing all of my actions."

"_But what is the cost,_" The voice replied. "_We are destroying Haru. We are destroying our love. The dead do not return, Azuma. This is the killing we were sheltered from. This is the destruction we can weak without learning restraint._"

"But, if I am being manipulated by the Primer…"

"_Our love is our own. Of eleven other assassins it is we who have fallen in love with Haru Ichinose. No other assassin gave up their attempt such as we did. Whether the primer ability led us here or no, this love is our own. Tokaku. Do not throw away something precious for the answer to a question that is irrelevant to our goals. Our love for Haru Ichinose is more important_."

Immediately Azuma was flashed back to the graveyard, and she gently pulled the knife away from the young girls chest, her eyes still wide in shock.

"M-Miss Tokaku." Haru said in shock.

"I can't do it." Azuma said, tossing the knife to the floor. "My love is too strong." She turned her head away from Haru, and looked up at the ceiling.

Nio's laughing was heard in the back.

"Ahhh Azuma, still too weak to kill her, eh?" She said, gathering all her strength to paint a smile across her face.

"Perhaps," Azuma replied, "Or perhaps I was strong enough not to."

•••

"Diplomas awarded for our two graduating classmates, Ichinose Haru and Tokaku Azuma. This certificate proves that they have successfully mastered the curriculum for this years learning. Congratulations on graduating." Ataru Mizorogi said, passing the diplomas out to the only two students remaining.

"Thank you, Mr. Mizorogi," Haru said with a grateful smile on her face.

"Thak you," Azuma said accepting her diploma.

"Ah, it's a shame that only you two could graduate from Class Black." He said, looking down at the floor a tear growing in his eye, "I would have loved to see all of the students here at the graduation." Haru and Azuma looked down, knowingly, and Haru took a deep breath before speaking.

"I'll take those." she said, referring to the leftover diplomas that would belong to the other classmates. "I would love to be able to grant them to the other students, when I see them again."

•••

The two girls held hands and walked away from the ceremony together. The sakura trees were blossoming from outside of the school, and the two girls walked down together. A petal gently fell down and landed on Haru's face, and Azuma quickly swept it away from her cheek. Upon removing the petal, the two girls turned around and saw Nio standing in front of them.

"Eh, so did you ever decide on your wish then? For winning Class Black?" She asked the two girls.

Azuma looked at Haru, before nodding and speaking

"We want to lead normal lives. We want to no longer feel the burden of our history and we want to continue to live in peace, together."

"And," Haru added, "We want our friends to lead lives they desire from now on."

"Ah, are you really sure you want to give up your abilities? Your life with the clan could be so promising…"

''Yes," Haru said confidently, "Haru thinks she was meant to live a normal life."

"Ah, well, I suppose we can manage you wish then," Nio said, a small laugh escaping her lips as she walked past the two. They turned around to watch her go, only realizing that she had disappeared once again.

•••

EPILOGUE

_Haru made sure that all of the diplomas wound up in the hands of those who had deserved them._

_They attempted to track down many of their former classmates, and successfully met up with several of them. To those who meetings with would be impossible, the two sent letters to many of the others. They were pleased to learn that many of their classmates had decided to give up lives of assassination in order to pursue other activities that they felt better suited their interests._

_Some of their friends were still actively in the business, but were still pleased nonetheless to hear from the Azuma and Haru. Others were less than thrilled, but still decided to keep the diplomas as a souvenir of the time that they spent together._

_Haru and Tokaku personally went to the graves of all the girls who had passed during their stay in Class Black, and laid out their diplomas over the graves, and together they mourned the loss of their fellow classmates._

_After months without contact, curiosity got the best of Azuma and she reached back out to her old coordinator who had her sent to class black. He attempted to tell her that she had still yet to see the truth of her potential, and said that he thought she had made the wrong choice about how she should live her future. Azuma smiled, regretfully, before closing the computer and deciding that she would not speak with him again. She then went back to her girlfriend and gave her a gentle kiss, knowing in her heart that she had made the right decision._


End file.
